30 juillet 2015

« Fuck it, ship it ». New track : « I see Dead Code »

I just finished this cheesy track, enjoy. I know this needs mastering but it's really hard to do it for your own track. If you'd like to collaborate with me here is the splice project: https://splice.com/djcrontab/i-see-dead-code

This is the first track I release since I seriously learn about music theory in general and electronic music production in particular. The more you know, the more you feel stuck. Your theoretical knowledge totally surpasses your actual skill and creativity. I started at least 20 tracks before dropping them and starting a new one. I felt finally unblocked after reading Making Music: A Book of Creative Strategies, which is a bit like a Martin Fowler book for EDM producers.

The key here is to get yourself to actually sit down and get something done, while you have no idea what you'll end up with. Finishing something really matters, otherwise you'll never improve at actually finishing a project. So I picked up another advice in the book, which is to choose constraints and work within those constraints. The projects I started were really too complex, too open to many different directions, and after many hours and many days I find myself with three times 30 seconds sequences that totally don't match, I'm fed up so I drop it and start something new. So I picked up a constrained genre which is really a baseline and a very wide pad, then concentrated on just chord progressions. Then I figured it was becoming pleasantly epic&cheesy, especially the part when I switch from major to minor, so I added some FX. It became totally obvious were it should go, and could still afford some creativity such as the glitchy part near the end of the track.

So thanks to this, now I can receive some feedback, and even if it's not really the style I'd like to end up with, I improved on how to keep a track busy, transitions, and put in practice chord progression.